Behold! My old math book from 1980-ish!

 Through this math book,  I explored the hows and whys of computation.




Well, actually, just the hows. I had no idea why the heck I was doing this work. It had no bearing on reality, just pages in a book with a picture of a horse on the front. Perhaps the horse had an idea as to the meaning of this math, but he wasn't telling.

Here's how "Math Time" worked:
The teacher would give us a lesson, we would work in the book, and the teacher would tell us if we were right or wrong. If we were right, well cool, I got a little extra free time to bury my nose in a book or gossip with a friend. If I was wrong, I'd correct the problems. No one ever asked me to explain why I answered a question a certain way or what I had learned. I learned to "do" math, but I was never asked to think mathematically. By Junior High, I could add, subtract, multiply and divide like a champ, but could not apply these skills to more complicated math concepts. Because I had no idea why I needed to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. I was all math facts, no math thinking.

"Teacher! I got them all right!"

"Um, why am I doing this?"

"On to the next page! And the next..."

 I am on a mission to make sure my students are truly thinking about math. I want them to really get it and if they don't get it, I want them to be able to tell me what is confusing. I want to hear from them what stands out about a certain math activity, I want to know how they process information, how they use information. I want them examine, express, and self monitor their math understanding.

  Last week I showed you a glimpse of our Estimation Station. This week we continued this activity by counting the pasta in the small jar. I used this time to introduce the class to our Math Journals.

 By reading their journals, you can evaluate their progress and recognize their strengths and needs.

This student shares that she got a little stuck because we were doing a smaller jar than we did last week.

Here is an estimate: 52 noodles

Compared with the actual number: 150 noodles

And while they are thinking, they are also having FUN.

Here are some more FUN math activities from this week:

1. This video on place value
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLbnFE_Yf4

which led to this game:

2. Place Value Snowball fight!!!

Here, Annabella and Max are throwing "snowballs", or rather wadded up sheets of paper with single digits on them. When they have filled the baskets, they choose 3 (for working on place value to 100s) or 4 (for working on place value to 1,000s).
Then, they arrange their digits to show and record in their Math Journals:

The largest number they can make.
The smallest number they can make.
The sum of all of the digits.
The value of each digit.
The number written in expanded form.
A number sentence using greater than/less than to compare 2 numbers.
The number written in word form.
One question to ask a classmate about your number.

Recording in the Math Journals:

3. Some of us stepped into rounding this week...or should I say leapt into rounding. Here is Annabella demonstrating her new knowledge, with a little help from this rhyme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iMbseU2LaQ&list=PLCq-7llIV3OkYp-vGlhsXx313Ica6cq_c&index=1

Watch this agile "dragon" pounce on those 10s!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoqXNpUErWs

In non-math related news, we packed this week full of writing. Here's Bo and Zoe finishing up their outlines for their animal report. What thorough researchers they are!

Zoe records some new facts about Zebras.

Need Platypus facts? Nobody knows more than Bo!

In Greek Myths we compared the Greek creation myth with several Native American tales of creation:

Then we wrote our own amazing creation myth. See if you can figure out which part your child wrote! (Gabriel from Heidi's class joins us every afternoon for myths, so you'll see his name on this, too!)

Our Class Creation Myth

By:

Annabella Hunermund

Max Ng

Bo Fink

Tani Fischer

Zoe McLeod

Gabriel Stettner-Auerbach

A long time ago, B.J. Upton, a Braves baseball player, hit a home run. The baseball created Space. He made all of the stars and planets out of baseball field grass.

A European Dragon was hunting and he came to the grassy field. He pulled up some grass, got some tree bark and got some leaves from Mars. He burned it all up with his fire and it turned into a little ball. When he threw it to the stars, it turned into the Earth.

An outdoor cat made a container from his whiskers and captured some air from space. He spread the air on Earth and it made the skies.

When the cat burned some things (with a little help from the Dragon), he made another container from his whiskers and captured some smoke from the fire. He turned the smoke into clouds. Then, he got some water and put it in the clouds. Three days later, it rained. That’s how the sky was invented!

The Platypus made the creeks with magical powers from his webbed feet. Then, he created the rivers by using his webbed feet to dig a very long, straight line. Then he put in the curves and got some water from the creek. He put lots of the water into the river, and that’s how the river was created!

A house cat used his claws to dig a circle. Then he dug the inside. He spread his blue gray fur into the circle and it turned the fur into the water in the lakes!

A Golden Retriever dug a gigantic hole and used her magic powers to get water. She went to her kitchen and got a container of salt and came back outside. She put the salt in the water and mixed it up with a spoon. Then she used her magic power to turn the sea blue. That’s how the oceans were created!

The Dragon was in the Arctic and had the idea to build mountains everywhere. He started pushing the ice together and it created big mountains. He went all around the world doing that.

Out of the mist, a woman appeared. B.J. Upton married her and they had lots of baby people.

THE END

The biggest buzz this week was around SCIENCE. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks were on the minds of these kids. Several of them even took it upon themselves to make a Rock Lab in the classroom! 

Yes, our class truly ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of Power Suits and Purposeful Teaching

I started my teaching career a bazillion years ago in A________ Public Schools. I remember my first new teacher training: Hundreds of young, bright eyed teachers packed into a dimly lit warehouse somewhere in southeast Atlanta. We sipped tepid coffee as we listened to a woman in a yellow, heavily shoulder-padded suit  (aka: the late '80s "Working Girl" Power Suit) espouse the importance of daily lesson plans. "The most important part of your plan," she said, "is to show the Georgia Performance Standard that matches each activity. Only one standard per activity, please. Too many standards make it unclear to your principal what you are working on." In front of me sat a notebook the size of 5 telephone books, crammed full of these standards. Page after page after page. I felt panicked and confused. How would I ever figure out which standard went with which lesson? I mean, if I was teaching place value to 3rd graders, would that fall under

State Standard M2D1: Students will solve problems 

or

State Standard M2P3: Students will communicate mathematically?



There were also "highly suggested" activities for planning the actual lessons.  For example, when working on Place Value, we could choose from:

a workbook page with fill in the blank (aka "cloze" in teacherese) activities
a workbook page with multiple choice activities
a workbook page with true or false questions



Once I hit the classroom, I found several things to be true about lesson plans:

1. It was darn near impossible to match one activity with only one "standard". Don't get me wrong, matching standards with activities is a good thing. As a teacher, I always have goals in mind when working with children.  Personal goals, developmental goal, and yes, even state standards. But one activity usually meets a multitude of Performance Standards. Additionally, one activity might target different goals for different students.
2. While there is nothing wrong with a workbook page here and there, one size does not fit all. And, frankly, workbooks are pretty darn boring to me. No matter if it's filling in blanks or coloring in bubbles, I just wasn't that thrilled about using them.
3. Who the heck has time to write lesson plans that include every standard known to man??? I didn't get into this teaching gig to spend my days poring over a lesson planner. I wanted to actually spend time with my students. I wanted to plan fun, engaging activities that targeted the needs of each child. What I did not want to do was to spend my valuable planning time writing sorting through the Performance Standard manual searching. After a month or so, I knew what my kids knew, I knew what my kids didn't know, and I knew what I wanted to teach them.

 I won't bore you with the number of times I was called into the Principal's office (she also had a closet full of Power Suits...where do they buy those??).

 "Ms. Lockwood, there are 3 standards for this one lesson. One standard per lesson, please."
"Ms. Lockwood, writing the math problem in sand was not one of your choices for this standard."

and later:

"Ms. Lockwood, why have you not turned in lesson plans for the past two weeks?"


So began my downward spiral. First, I was written up for a "violation". Eventually, I was put on a "Professional Development Plan" for non-compliant teachers.  Ha! What a rebel I was!
The funny thing was, no one ever actually came to my room to observe whether or not I was teaching. But, boy howdy, were they serious about getting those lesson plans in to the front office on time.


So just imagine what A_________ Public Schools would think of one of our math lessons for this week.

Estimation Station

Noodles. One big jar, one small jar. The children made their initial guesses on Monday as to how many noodles were in each jar. We compared jars, explained our guesses. On Thursday, we reviewed the guesses. After hearing our friends' ideas, some of us adjusted our original guesses. Then we counted, starting with the large jar.

"How should we count?" I asked.
We had several suggestions: one at a time, 5 at a time, 10 at a time.
"How should we do this?"
Another student suggestion, "Give us each 10 noodles."
"Hmmm...if you each got 10 noodles, then how many noodles are in the jar?"
"50!"
"Do you think there are more than 50 or less than 50?"
"More! Way more!"
"Let's give everyone 10 more! Then everyone will have..."
"100!"
"Who wants to count out the first 10 noodles?"

and so on.

As we counted, the noodles, we adjusted our guesses again...and again. The student were so excited and involved, and we s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d the lesson out for so long that we didn't even get to the small jar this week.

So,as a nod to my former employer, I will share a few of the Georgia Performance Standards targets we were hitting during this time:


Building new mathematical knowledge through problem solving.
Solving problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts.
Applying and adapting a variety of appropriate strategies to solve problems.
Monitoring and reflecting on the process of mathematical problem solving.
Organizing and consolidating their mathematical thinking through communication.
Creating and use representations to organize, record, and communicate mathematical ideas.
Representing numbers using a variety of models.
Understanding the relative magnitudes of numbers using 10 as a unit and 100 as a unit.
Using mental math strategies such as benchmark numbers to solve problems.
Estimating to determine if solutions are reasonable...............................................................

Wait, WAIT! Where are you going? I wasn't done yet! There are hundreds more standards happening in this lesson!

Fine, I won't continue. What I will tell you, though, is that there was a purpose to this activity. Actually, more than one. Waaaay more. And the purpose for one child was not the same for every other child. Want to know what we were looking for with your child? I'd be happy to answer that. Want to know what you can do at home to continue to build these skills? I can help you with that, too. Want to hear more about my vast knowledge of State Performance Standards? Well, we can go there, too...


 But for now, however, I will show you some other awesome activities that we did this week.

Writing in our journals:

Practicing spelling words:

and making self portraits:

We also got to hang out with these guys:

Cyclops

Eros

Uranus and Gaia

 To help you understand what we've been reading, here's a video about the creation of the world, Greek Myth style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHNae-ym9Z4



We introduced the students to the different types of rocks, thanks to Bill Nye:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGfco7kNzJA


One of the coolest moments this week was when the students actually tied together the forming of the Earth, according to the Greeks, and the forming of rocks, according to, well, Bill Nye (wait, he didn't discover this?)


We spent some more time with this little fella during read aloud

Stuart Little

as we learned some cool nautical vocabulary terms (rigging, mast) and cheered him to a toy boat racing victory.


But the best thing about this week? NO YELLOW POWER SUITS WERE INVOLVED (though I really think Leslie would look good in one).


Have a great LONG weekend!

I'm feeling like I've won the classroom lottery.

Seriously, I've been teaching for 19 years and this was one of the smoothest 1st weeks I've ever had. Why? Your children, that's why. What an amazing crew! The self proclaimed "Dragons and Unicorns" crew have adapted to new faces, new routines and for some, a new school with ease.

And with a new school year, comes some old, familiar student questions:

"Ms. Amanda, when are we going to do school work?"
"Are we going to start doing math soon?" 
"Wow, do we always get to play so much at this school?" 

Yes, yes, we do. We love to play at Hirsch. But what these sweet young things don't realize is that the academics have already started. Shhhh...please don't tell, we don't want to ruin the fun by letting the kids know that they have actually been thinking and problem solving all week.

Here's an example...


Marble madness is a fairly simple visual thinking game. The children have a red cup and a blue cup. Red in right hand, blue in left. The person with the marble says a name, rolls a marble, and the receiving child traps the marble under the cup. To start, we used the red cup only with the left hand. Then the blue cup only with the right hand. Things got a bit more tricky when we used both cups, so you have to call the name of the person you are rolling it to and the cup color you want them to catch it with (later, we will add more than one marble to the mix, mwuahahaha!)

See? Simple game, right?

Not so fast, young Jedi.

Before we even started the game, we were already putting the kids to the problem solving test. We explained that we were going to play a game where we passed marbles to each other. "Where should we play this game?" we asked. A couple of students said we should do it right there at the table, but a couple of others felt like it would be too loud. So, they decided that we should sit in a circle on the carpet. There were some pretty big spaces between us, though, and the kids realized that the marbles would go all over the place if we didn't find a way to contain them. After a few minutes of deliberation, they plugged the holes with beanbags and stuffed animals.

So we were totally ready to play when...wait...my body is sticking out in the middle of the circle.
"Move back, Ms. Amanda!"
I scoot back and *ouch* hit my head on the table.
"Just sit under the table, Ms. Amanda."
But I didn't want to sit under the table; I wanted to be with the group. I asked them to help me find a solution. And after a frustrating 3 minutes or so, they figured it out. And by frustrating, I mean for them, not for Erin and me. We love this stuff. They just wanted to get to the game and couldn't figure out why this irritating teacher was making it so tough just to get the ball, er, marble, rolling. But the desire to play with the marbles kept them talking until...

"Let's move the tables! Then Ms. Amanda can fit in the circle!"

And with that, we were able to begin the Marble game.
This is how we roll (sorry) in the Dragons and Unicorns class. We make them think before the game even begins.



Other examples of thinking, problem solving, and good old fashioned academic skills we introduced this week:

• Mystery Box :(foundations of problem solving: using clues to solve a problem)

• Estimation station: (estimating, greater than/less than, adding and subtracting, base-10)

• Morning Work: (spelling, capitalization, calendar, time, data collection and analysis)

• Brown Bags: (comprehension, sequencing, making a pre-writing map) 

Spelling Treasure Hunt: Is it work or is it play?

Zoe spots it...

...and records it.

Parents, please, don't blow our cover. Let the kids think we played all week.

Next Week:

I will be starting Key Math and Word Reading Efficiency assessments. Please make sure your child gets a good night's sleep and a big breakfast each morning!

Look for reading logs to come home in a folder each night. I would like for each child to read for 20 uninterrupted minutes a night and keep a record of what they have read. I know it can be hard to find that long of uninterrupted time, but its really important for the children to have this time to build reading stamina.

We will have our first swimming day next Wednesday at the Decatur Dekalb YMCA. Carpool is from 8:45-9:00 at the YMCA.

 Next Thursday night, August 22, 7:00-8:30 is the Hirsch Parent Orientation. More details to come.

 From my point of view, this has been a terrific year. But I'm just one person.

 Erin? Roxy? You agree, right?

Of course they do. Teachers always say it's been a terrific year (especially on the first day of summer).

 But what do the KIDS say????

Here's what Aidan, Oliver, Bo, Annabella, Paul, Tani and Jakob think about the 2012-2013 school year:
 

Four things my teacher said a lot this year:

"Let's have a redo."
"That's expected."
That's unexpected."
"Hi."
"Good job."
"PDI Agent."
"Happy Birthday."
"Good morning."
"I want to see you eating lunch."
"Hit the road."
"Awesome-ness."
"Wear glasses."
"Take an engine break."
"I like pugs."
"Reflection time.

My favorite place at school:

"The upstairs engine room"
"Playground"
"Library"
"Sarah C.'s room."
"Amanda and Erin's room."
"Shelley and Sarah A.'s room."
"Julie Siler's room."


If I could swap places with my teacher for the day and become the teacher, I would:

"Teach about u-boats and battleships and destroyers."
"Do art and science early."
"Teach math."
"Listen to rock and roll for an hour and a half, play the video game  Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis for two hours. 1 minute of an engine break. Free time for an hour. An hour of Minecraft. A movie: Ironman 3."
"Do science and read Bad Kitty."
"Have everyone go on pullouts with Sarah C."
"Do a field trip to Sandy Springs Fun House."

My favorite part of the school day is:

"Bacon Chase"
"Having Choice"
"Choice"
"Having pullouts"
"Pullouts with Sarah A."

Things I really liked to eat at lunch:

"Cheese sandwiches"
"Goldfish and Cheese-Its"
"Fired rice and macaroni"
"Pizza and potatoes"
"Something my Mom makes"


Things I did not like to eat for lunch:

"Nothing"
"Apples and clementines"
"Clementines"
"Broccoli and chicken"
"Sunflower"


My Favorite song from music class:

"West Virginia" (Country Roads, Take me Home")
"Good Morning Song"
"She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain"
"This Land is Your Land"

If my teacher gave me 20 minutes to do whatever I wanted at the start of class, I would:

"Play Legos"
"Read"
"Play with the beads"
"Run 10 laps"
"Play Minecraft on the ipad"
"Play Plants v Zombies"

During summer I will miss these things the most from school:

"Pullouts"
"Pullouts and choice"
"Friends"
"Choice and engine breaks"
"Reading and science"
"Erin and Sarah C."
 "You and other teachers and friends"

What was your favorite Norse myth or Fairy tale?:

"The Three Little Pigs"
"The Three Little Pigs"
 "The Three Billy Goats Gruff"
"The Three Little Pigs because it is a creative story and cool and not boring."
"The Death of Balder"

What was your favorite read aloud?

"Bad Kitty"
"Bad Kitty, because it is funny"
"Bad Kitty for President  because its interesting to find out who the president will be"

What was your favorite science activity?

"Planting"
"The plane video was my favorite because it lasted two science days."
"Plants"
"Making quicksand"
"Bill Nye when he's crazy"
"The Bill Nye desert video"
"Making airplanes"

What was your favorite thing to play at recess or PE?

 "Dodgeball because you throw balls."
"I like swinging at recess because it is fun."
"Dodgeball, because it is fun."
"Ultimate TV because its a video game."
 "Bacon Chase"

If you could give one word to sum up the year, what would it be?

"Awesome-ness"
"Awesome" 
"Fun"
"Cool"
"Great"



To our families moving to different schools next year, you will be missed.  To those families returning, we'll see you in August.

To all of you...

Have a great summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sign o' the Times (Tables)

How did you learn to multiply? Here's how I did:

and this:

Honestly, I'm not hating on flash cards and drills. They certainly serve their purpose. Children do need to have some automatic recall of facts, especially when you get to higher level math; having to do all of that calculating in your head slows you down. Here's my problem, though. Too much memorization, not enough understanding.

 Memorization=easy. I've got a bazillion fun and silly memorization strategies, songs, computer games, i-pad apps I can hook you up with if that's your bag. But, you know, easy ain't how we do things around here. We like to make 'em THINK. Long before we set the timer and rock out the 1 minute math facts, we need to know what the heck multiplication even means. Why do we need it? When do we need it? How can we use it in real life?

 Last week, the kids received this message:

Dear Hirsch Students,

We are writing you this letter because we need your help!  

We, the candy bar makers at The Crazy Chocolate Corporation are having trouble designing the latest and greatest candy boxes.  We have heard that you are an extremely creative group of kids (and the best candy testers), so we would like you to help us design our newest candy boxes.  We would like your help on packaging, design, name and flavor of the new chocolate boxes.

    We have several size boxes we would like to make. Every box must be a square or a rectangle!

1.   A box that will hold 4 candies.

2.   A box that will hold 6 candies.

3.   A box that will hold 8 candies.

4. A box that will hold 9 candies.

5.  A box that will hold 10 candies.

6.   A box that will hold 12 candies.

7.   A box that will hold 16 candies.

Include all your possible candy arrays, and then tell us which array you choose for the new candy boxes.  Don't forget to tell us why you think its best.  Lastly, think of a name for each box that will wow the customers and think of some new and creative ingredients to attract kids to this new bar.

Thank you so much for your help!

                                              Sincerely,

               The Crazy Chocolate Corporation

Here we are in the Hirsch Package Product Development Lab:

Here's one way to make 4: 2x2

Here's another way: 4x1

Hmm, I know there is another way to fit 6 candies...

Sharing our discoveries

Candy Box chart for multiples of 4, 6, 8, 9, 10

Then Paul discovers this:

 

Well, we agree, it is six pieces of candy. But what was that other rule? It must be a rectangle or a square. Hmm...what exactly is a rectangle or a square? Luckily, Paul (behind the camera) and Aidan had already discovered this at the beginning of the lesson. Here is Professor Reilly to explain:

http://youtu.be/wsXUDhTpvl4 

So, while we love the design, would the Crazy Chocolate Corporation accept this? Well, it never hurts to ask.

We extended this activity into higher numbers for one student, who already has a background in basic multiplication. Figuring the facts in his head, no problem. Showing us how his calculator brain works, that's where the thinking piece comes in.

18=3x6 and...

18=2x9 and...

18=1x18

 Fun activity, no? But the real life application came during science:

Emotions were running high this week. Several of our upstairs children moving on to different schools, and they are starting to feel some pretty big feelings about about leaving our safe, loving nest for other exciting opportunities. We combined all of these sometimes scared, sometimes sad, sometimes excited feelings  with a powerfully moving and tragic Norse myth, and  got some amazing and passionate discussion in our afternoon literature group.  And this is exactly why I so love teaching these stories.

Here's the story we read about Loki and his responsibility for the death of the beloved god, Balder:

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0118142/norsepan/balderde.php

The kids were horrified that mischievous Loki had done something so horrible. "I HATE him!" one child shouted, "He use to be my favorite character, but now I HATE him!" They agreed that he should be punished, and were excited to find out that the next story is, indeed, titled "Loki's Punishment". Before reading, though, we decided to take justice into our own hands. How would you punish Loki?  I asked. Here are some of the answers I received:

Marrying the ugliest frost giant
8,000 butt whoopings
Turn him into a pepperoni pizza and eat him
feed him to the Midgard Serpent
Turn him into a rat
Battle him with my hands


We shall find out next week, as we wrap up an amazing few months of Norse mythology. This has truly been one of the most energetic, thoughtful, and creative literature groups I've had the pleasure of teaching for quite some time. 


I'm hoping my Vikings continue to explore these stories over the summer.  And look what just came out!! 
http://www.amazon.com/Lokis-Wolves-Blackwell-Pages-ebook/dp/B008TUR7TA/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=1T4KNP6AZUMK5&coliid=I3UR0P8P0U5HZE


Next week we will be wrapping up this amazing year. We've all come so far and formed such bonds. We want to celebrate each child. The students began making friendship bracelets for each other yesterday and we will exchange them next week. I've asked each child to think about one special thought, wish or compliment they have for each one of their friends. We will share these as we pass out the bracelets. For our children leaving us *sniff* we will have a little something extra to wish them well. Next Friday, we will join Heidi and Gudny's class for a movie, pajama, and popcorn party.
And then, wonderful parents, they are all yours until August!